Robot-to-robot and robot-to-trailer

[GaryVoshol]

There is so much speculation going on about this topic that it may be impossible to resolve anything. But here's my attempt.

The Trailer is not part of the robot. That's abundantly clear; if it were not so, everyone's robot would be out of size immediately when the trailer was hitched.

<G32> is titled "Robot-to-robot" interaction, but then the word Trailer appears in the first two sentences. Except for those two instances, the wording of this paragraph is the same as the 2008 rule <G37>. I'm not sure why the GDC even had to add Trailers here, because there are other rules about damaging field elements, e.g. <G30>.

The subpoints A through E do not address Trailers. F and G do, for climbing on, attaching to or intentionally tipping. However even here there must be some leeway, because your robot is attached to your trailer, so at least that must be allowed.

There is a significant difference in the contact outside the bumper zone rule from last year. Look at what was deleted:

Originally Posted by 2008 Rule <G37>c

c. Contact outside of the BUMPER ZONE is generally not acceptable, and will result in a PENALTY. The offending ROBOT may be disqualified from the MATCH if the offense is particularly egregious or if it results in substantial damage to another ROBOT. However, incidental contact outside of the BUMPER ZONE will not be penalized.

(Strike-through mine to illustrate what was removed) This makes 2009 rule <G32>E much more stringent.

Finally, it has to be decided whether a trailer even has a bumper zone. Just because a trailer has bumpers, that doesn't mean it has a zone. The field has bumpers too. If only robots have bumper zones, then <G32>E applies only to robot-to-robot contact.